Recent advances in molecular biology, genetics, and pharmacology have made it feasible to alter experimentally the function or to correct the dysfunction of specific organ through tissue engineering. In addition, because it is located at the interface between the environment and the rest of the body, skin is ideally positioned to direct accept therapeutic gene products, to treat systemic diseases, or to treat disease remote from the skin. The overall objective of the Skin Engineering Core Laboratory is to promote the development and use of innovative technologies for skin engineering by center investigators. To achieve this objective, the Core Director, Stephen Johnston, Ph.D. (Professor of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry and Director of Center for Biomedical Invention), and 3 Investigator-Consultants, J. Victor Garcia-Martinez, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Internal Medicine), Thomas N. Sato, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Internal Medicine) will make platform technologies developed in the Center for Biomedical Intervention (CBI) readily available to Center Investigators. The Laboratory is organized around 5 specific aims: (1) to develop new vaccines directed against skin-relevant pathogens by combining two existing technologies: genetic vaccines and expression library immunization (ELI), (2) to develop new skin-targeted gene delivery and controlled gene expression systems, (3) to apply phage display technology for the development of phage-based cell-targeting strategies, (4) to serve as a focal point for the application of newly developed technologies to skin-oriented research and, ultimately, to patients with skin disorders, and (5) to enable SDRC investigators to make use of an in vitro skin-equivalent model for skin engineering. These services, which are otherwise unavailable to most investigators, will stimulate the development of innovative, skin-targeted technologies and their rapid translation into clinically applicable forms.